On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed legislation that would provide aid to states’ budgets and is predicted to save thousands of teaching jobs. President Obama signed the bill into law as well, providing relief to state budgets that are facing in all over $120 billion in shortfalls for the upcoming fiscal year.

Craig:

I feel very conflicted by this bill. I understand and can see why Congress wants to pass aid to the sates. However, at what cost? As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge budget hawk. I think we need to cut more, find new revenue sources, and even change the structure of how we tax our citizens. Read the rest of this entry »

In Missouri, Proposition C passed on Tuesday. Part of the language in the ballot initiative, which passed with 71 percent of the vote, went like this:

“Shall the Missouri Statutes be amended to….Deny the government authority to penalize citizens for refusing to purchase private health insurance or infringe upon the right to offer or accept direct payment for lawful healthcare services?”

With this, as well as the striking down of Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 by a federal judge, The Political Panorama decided to look at the concept of states’ rights this week.

This week, U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) was charged with 13 counts of ethics violations by a House subcommittee. Corruption is nothing new in politics, and the team at The Political Panorama decided to discuss the issue of ethics in politics.

Douglas

I stated at my personal blog earlier this week that Charlie Rangel had to step down. However, ethics has very little to do with it. In fact, I think that there has been too much of an effort on “good government” in recent years. People say that they want to be able to “trust” the person that represents them. Well, would you trust someone that you do not know personally to, say, housesit for you or babysit your child? Of course not. So why do we ask that much more of our elected officials?

Elena Kagan is President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court. She is a former law school dean at Harvard and has served in the Clinton and Obama administrations. Her latest position is as Solicitor General for the Obama administration in which she argues cases before the Supreme Court. Unlike most recent Supreme Court nominees, Kagan does not have experience as a judge and she has been involved in some controversy. The writers at the Political Panorama weigh in on whether they feel Kagan will be confirmed and whether she should be confirmed.

Next week, President Obama will be signing into law the Financial Reform package that was passed after weeks of negotiations in order to get past the filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate. This is what the Panorama tackles this week.

President Obama has a fairly big decision looming on the horizon. The Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year, but President Obama campaigned on making the cuts permanent for middle class families. Compounding matters is the deficit problem the U.S. is facing. Extending the tax cuts would obviously mean less revenue for the government as many feel it is becoming increasingly clear that cutting spending alone will not be sufficient to solve the budget crisis. Throw in the economic recession and the fact that letting the tax cuts expire would derail the economic recovery and you’ve got a real pickle. What’s a President to do? Read the rest of this entry »

This year’s midterms have the potential to shape the legislative agenda of the Obama administration for some time to come. If the Republicans win out this year, it will have a chilling effect on the White House’s political capital. If the Democrats manage to keep the House and Senate in their hands, but with a reduced majority, this could also force the White House to play a little nicer with Republicans, a la Bill Clinton post-1994.

The following is a list of races that the writers at The Political Panorama are watching closely this year.